BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The Trump administration has completed a review of plans to ease protections for a struggling bird species in seven states in the U.S. West, but there's little time to put them into action before President-elect Joe Biden takes office.
The ground-dwelling, chicken-sized greater sage grouse has been at the center of a long-running dispute over how much of the American West's expansive public lands should be developed.
A federal judge blocked the Trump administration in 2019 from relaxing rules imposed under the Obama administration that restricted mining, drilling and grazing across millions of acres.
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That court order remains in effect with only eight days left in Trump's term.
